A search engine is a program designed to find information stored on one or more computing devices. In its most recognized format, search engines, such as those employed by MSN, Yahoo, and Google, for example, are used to find websites and documents throughout the Internet. These types of search engines typically perform “horizontal” searches, providing a breadth of information related to the search query. However, users often desire information within a narrow topic or field, such that search results from a horizontal search may not be sufficiently relevant to the users. Accordingly, vertical search engines have been designed to perform specialized searches to mine data for a narrower niche than can be provided by a horizontal search. For example, a shopping vertical search engine may be employed to search information for products users may wish to purchase. Other types of search verticals include image verticals, job/career verticals, travel verticals, local services verticals, research verticals, real estates verticals, automobile verticals, and news verticals, for example.
Typically, users turn to commercially-available vertical search engines to perform vertical searches. However, users may be dissatisfied with the choice of available vertical search engines. For example, there may not be a commercially-available vertical search engine directed to the specific topic with which users wish to search or the vertical search engines that are available may not be sufficiently tailored for users' purposes. In such cases, users may wish to create their own search verticals or may wish to find search verticals created and shared by other end users.